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A new study by ForgeRock has revealed that the massive 297 per cent surge in breaches were caused by security oversights associated with supply chain and third-party suppliers, which represents 25 per cent of all breaches.
The ForgeRock data revealed that unauthorised access was the leading cause of breaches for the fourth consecutive year, steadily increasing to account for 50 per cent of all records compromised during 2021.
According to ForgeRock CEO Fran Rosch, cyber criminals have become increasingly creative when devising attack methods.
"This is no time for security teams to let their guard down as cyber criminals are getting even more bold in how they score their next payday.
"Exploits that target peoples' usernames and passwords to break into organisations are becoming more sophisticated.
"Now more than ever, companies need to adopt digital identity and access management solutions that strengthen their security posture without compromising the user experience," Rosch said.
In 2021, over 60 per cent of all records breached included Social Security numbers, dates of birth, or both, according to ForgeRock research, as the massive figure has doubled compared to last year.
Cyber security should factor-in how threats are evolving according to Phil Walsh, ForgeRock regional vice president for Australia and New Zealand, as a result of "becoming more digitally enabled than ever before in the past few years".
"With technology continuing to bridge the gap between online and offline, supporting increasingly remote workforces, we can expect to see the uptake of digital services continue.
"With digitisation increasing in the past year, the Australian government has increased opportunities for Australian businesses to invest more in cyber security, with spend skyrocketing.
"As a result, we are seeing a downturn in breach activity, as security continues to be priority number one."
Due to the fierce competition however, e-commerce sites and applications have been found "omitting security features", according to the ForgeRock research in order to provide a seamless user experience to differentiate from its competitors. A major consequence of poor protection of personal data are poorly protected leads to breaches and subsequent fraud.
"Despite this downturn, incidents are still high if we compare them to pre-pandemic numbers and there is still capacity to build greater cyber security education and protections, especially as human error continues to dominate the causation of breaches," Walsh added.
"Looking ahead, what these findings tell us is that Australia is preparing for a greater digital future with the help of cyber security technology.
"As we continue to invest further into solutions like AI, we can expect to see greater bolstering of security protections against malicious actors," Walsh concluded.
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